great fight of afflictions;" but that grace sustaining you,
you will be made "more than conquerors." "All men forsook me," said the
great Apostle, "_nevertheless_, the LORD stood with me, and strengthened
me, and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion." "And God is able
to make _all_ grace abound toward YOU; that ye, always having
_all-sufficiency_ in _all things_, may abound to every good work." You
have found Him faithful in the past;--trust Him in the future. Cast all
your cares, and each care, as it arises, on Him, saying, in childlike
faith, "Undertake Thou for me!" Then, then, in your very night-seasons,
"His song will be with you." The Mount of your trial--the mournful,
desolate, solitary, rugged path you tread, will be carpeted with love,
fringed with mercy, and earth's darkest future will grow bright as you
listen to a voice stealing from the upper sanctuary, "I will come again
and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."

In this scene of the disciples returning to Jerusalem, we are presented
with the last picture of the Home of BETHANY. Here the earthly vision is
sealed, and we are only left to imagine Martha, and Mary, and Lazarus,
when the joyous footfall that had cheered their dwelling could be heard
no more, living together in sacred harmony, exulting in "the blessed
hope, even the glorious appearing of the Great God their Saviour."[50]

Did they live to survive the destruction of Jerusalem? Did they live to
hear the tramp of the Roman legions resounding through their quiet
hamlet, and "the abomination of desolation," the imperial eagles
desecrating the hallowed ridges of Olivet? Did they often repair to the
meetings of the infant Church in Jerusalem, and delight to mingle with
the _under_ shepherds, when the "_Chief_ Shepherd" had gone? Or did the
venerable company of Apostles love to resort, as their Lord before them,
to the old village of palm-trees, whose every memory was fragrant with
their Master's name? All these, and similar questions, we cannot answer.
This we know and feel assured of--they are now gathered a holy and happy
family in the true Bethany above--_there_ never more to listen to the
voice of weeping, or hear the tread of the funeral crowd, or the wail of
the Mourner!

And soon, too, shall many of us (let us trust) be _there_, to meet them!
BETHANY, we have seen, had alike its tears and its joys; so will it be
with every spot and every scene in this mingled